Here"s How Crimea Is Different From the Rest of Ukraine

Twitter/@RolandOliphant

The Crimean peninsula, the main flashpoint in Ukraine’s crisis, is a pro-Russia part of Ukraine separated from the rest of the country geographically, historically and politically. It also hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine has accused Russia of invading it, while Moscow argues that the new Ukrainian government is illegitimate and poses a threat to ethnic Russians in Crimea. Here’s some key information about the region:

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ON THE BLACK SEA

The Crimean Peninsula juts into the Black Sea, all but an island except for a narrow strip of land in the north connecting it to the mainland. On its eastern shore, a finger of land reaches out almost to Russia. It’s best known in the West as the site of the 1945 Yalta Conference, where Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sealed the postwar division of Europe.

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WHY IT’S PART OF UKRAINE

It only became part of Ukraine when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave the peninsula to his native land in 1954. This hardly mattered until the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and Crimea ended up in an independent Ukraine. Despite that, nearly 60 percent of its population of 2 million identify themselves as Russians.

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THE BLACK SEA FLEET

On Crimea’s southern shore sits the port city of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its thousands of naval personnel. Russia kept its half of the Soviet fleet, but was rattled in 2009 when the pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko warned that it would have to leave the key port by 2017. Shortly after pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, he agreed to extend the Russian lease until 2042. Russia fears that Ukraine’s new pro-Western government could evict it.

___

THE TATARS

Crimea fell to Russia in the late 18th century when Catherin the Great’s troops defeated its Tatar hosts allied with the Ottoman Port following hostilities that raged for decades.

The Tatars, who were brutally deported in 1944 under Stalin, returned amid the breakup of the Soviet Union and now make up about 12 percent of the population. They want Crimea to remain part of Ukraine and have sided firmly with the anti-Yanukovych protesters in Kiev, who drove his government from power.

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FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

British nurse Florence Nightingale was celebrated for treating wounded soldiers during the Crimean War of the mid-19th century, which Russia lost to an alliance that included Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. She is now considered the founder of modern nursing. The war ended in Russia’s humiliating defeat.

Politics

Here"s How Crimea Is Different From the Rest of Ukraine

Here"s A List Of All The Luxury Items Bob McDonnell May Have To Forfeit After Being Indicted

AP

Bob and Maureen McDonnell

The Justice Department on Tuesday indicted Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, on 14 counts stemming from their acceptance of gifts, luxury vacations, and large loans from a wealthy Virginia businessman.

Included in the indictment is a list of cash and other assorted items the McDonnells received as gifts. They may be forced to forfeit the possessions if they are convicted on offenses alleged in 11 of the counts spelled out in the indictment.

Here’s the extensive list:

Department of Justice

Politics

Here"s A List Of All The Luxury Items Bob McDonnell May Have To Forfeit After Being Indicted

Here"s the Statue Satanists Want at Oklahoma Capitol

(Newser) – A Ten Commandments monument has stood outside Oklahoma’s Capitol building since 2012, and a New York-based group would like to see it joined by another statue, so that “people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan.” That’s right: The Satanic Temple has formally submitted its application to the panel that oversees the Capitol grounds, and that application includes an artist’s rendering, reports the AP. The group is proposing a 7-foot statue of Baphomet, a horned goat-headed figure sitting on a pentagram-adorned throne with two smiling children next to him, which it believes will “serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures,” Raw Story reports.

“By accepting our offer, the good people of Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to show that they espouse the basic freedoms spelled out in the Constitution,” the crowdfunding campaign reads. So could the statue—which doubles as a chair—really happen? Oklahoma late last month enacted a temporary ban on new monuments outside the Capitol building, but a rep for the group maintains it entered its submission before the ban was filed, so it should still count, reports the Verge. As for funding, more than $ 25,000 has been raised for the project on Indiegogo, exceeding the $ 20,000 goal with seven days still left. Oklahoma’s is not the first Ten Commandments monument to inspire protest.

Politics from Newser

Here"s the Statue Satanists Want at Oklahoma Capitol

"You"re A Slave And Here"s Why" - M.O.C. #132

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"You"re A Slave And Here"s Why" - M.O.C. #132

If You Want to Rein In NSA Spying, HERE’s How to Do It

by WashingtonsBlog

There’s An Easy Technical Fix To A Good Chunk of Our Spy Problems

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees.

Binney has been interviewed by virtually all of the mainstream media, including CBS, ABC, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, PBS and many others.

Binney knows how to rein in NSA spying …

Specifically, Binney and his team – including NSA veterans Thomas Drake and Kurt Wiebe – created a system which automatically encrypts all information about Americans.

That information can only be read (i.e. decrypted) if a judge orders it to be decrypted after a finding that there is probable cause that the target is a bad guy.

In other words, the government had to obtain a search warrant based upon probably cause before a particular suspect’s communications could be decrypted.

This protected American citizens’ constitutional rights. Specifically, no unreasonable search and seizure or violation of our rights of association or speech. Unless a judge issues a search warrant, people’s privacy remains intact.

Protecting Americans’ Constitutional Rights

But the NSA now collects all data in an unencrypted form, so that no probable cause is needed to view any citizen’s information.

Binney says that it is actually cheaper and easier to store the data in an encrypted format (the government’s current system is being done for political – not practical – purposes.)

Because the NSA collects all of our raw information in unencrypted form, our constitutional right to avoid unreasonable searches and seizures – and to be able to speak freely and associate with who we wish – are being DESTROYED

By reinstating Binney’s system of automatic encryption, Americans’ privacy rights will be restored.

Binney told Washington’s Blog:

A Thinthread [the name of Binney"s encrypted system] type collection system up front would not even take in all the data about individuals unless they were close to a group of bad guys in the social network. This would remove most of the concern on constitutional and legal grounds.

Background on “closeness” to bad guys.

Vital Legislation

There are some good pieces of legislation being proposed by Congress to rein in runaway NSA spying. But it is difficult to draft laws which remove all of the loopholes …and most laws contain loopholes big enough to drive a truck through.

In addition, creative but unethical people will always try to find a way around new laws.

By requiring automatic encryption of all Americans’ data – subject to decryption only with a search warrant issued by a federal judge – a mechanism and procedure will be established which removes a lot of room for mischief.

Automatically encrypting the data would place the cookie jar on the top shelf … out of reach of immature hands.

NSA Data Vulnerable to Foreign Hackers

Implementing Binney’s system of automatic encryption would solve another giant problem …

Specifically, top internet security experts say that the NSA’s current spying system makes the Internetless secure, less safe … and more vulnerable to hackers and bad guys.

Indeed, huge quantities of web data originating in North America have been re-routed to bizarre locations all over the world by unknown actors.

The NSA’s big data collection itself creates an easy mark for hackers. And the Pentagon itself sees the collection of “big data” as a “national security threat” … but the NSA is the biggest data collector on the planet, and thus provides a tempting mother lode of information for foreign hackers.

Given that Americans’ sensitive, confidential information is lying around the NSA’s computersunencrypted, China, Russia or other actors can grab it. Indeed, leaving it unencrypted is like waiving a red flag for bad guys to get it.

(Sure, the NSA has firewalls and such. But its computer systems are not as bullet-proof as one might assume, and hackers have successfully penetrated Department of Defense, Federal Reserve and many other supposedly secure systems).

Binney confirmed to us that automatically encrypting data would also help protect it from being easily hacked by non-U.S. actors:

When done properly, encryption would give even the Chinese and Russians difficulty.

He also explained that the NSA is overly-confident about the security of its own systems:

One of the arguments NSA would make is that they have a closed and continuously encrypted network world-wide. Which they would argue would  protect them from hackers.  However,  even they don’t know that that is true for sure.  They do not have good documentation of their network and therefore can not assure everyone that the “Network” is truly isolated and secure.

Indeed, this is a matter of national security. Automatically encrypting Americans’ private data will make it harder for foreigners to access the data.

For all of the above reasons, encrypting Americans’ data must be central to NSA reform efforts.

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If You Want to Rein In NSA Spying, HERE’s How to Do It

Here"s How to Fix "Black Thursday": Stay Home

Here"s How to Fix "Black Thursday": Stay Home
http://thedailynewsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/02d5e__p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif

(Newser) – Based on the Facebook outrage and all the online petitions, a huge chunk of America is pretty upset about the growing trend of stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. But, uh, the way to fix this has nothing to do with signing a petition and posting it on your Facebook wall, writes Ellen Galinsky for Time. “All you have to do is do something else on Thanksgiving Day other than opening your wallet.” It’s that easy: “Don’t go shopping on Thanksgiving. Just don’t.”

Research—including that done by the Families and Work Institute, which Galinsky co-founded—shows that holidays are “critical to keeping employees healthy and productive.” And what’s to say the trend of working on Thanksgiving won’t eventually shift from retail to non-essential white collar jobs? “After all, 50 years ago no one would have thought that professionals would be working nights and weekends, and we all know how that turned out,” Galinsky writes. Matt Walsh had a similar take on the Huffington Post last week: “If you shop on Thanksgiving, you are part of the problem.” Click for his full column, or Galinsky’s full column.

Lifestyle from Newser

Read more about Here"s How to Fix "Black Thursday": Stay Home and other interesting subjects concerning Living at TheDailyNewsReport.com

Too Cool For (Bike) Helmet Head? Here"s One Swedish Solution

Enlarge image i

No more helmet hair: Hövding’s “invisible” helmet is an airbag tucked away in a collar that gets fastened around a cyclist’s neck. It’s aimed at urban cyclists and priced at $ 535.

Courtesy of Hövding

No more helmet hair: Hövding’s “invisible” helmet is an airbag tucked away in a collar that gets fastened around a cyclist’s neck. It’s aimed at urban cyclists and priced at $ 535.

Courtesy of Hövding

Hey there, hipster. No bike helmet, huh? Well, we all have our excuses. There are the vanity-driven ones that — let’s be honest — explain why the majority of our brain cages sit collecting dust in the dark corners of the garage. Squashed hair, unflattering chinstraps, general discomfort, etc.

Then there are the more nuanced arguments tied to piles of conflicting data about how effective helmets actually are (including one small, if oft-cited study suggesting that drivers tend to pass helmeted riders at closer distances than their non-helmeted counterparts).

But what if there were a helmet that answered both categories of complaint? One that respected your brain and your coiffure?

Enter, Hövding, the “invisible” helmet, brainchild of Swedish design duo Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin.

“Vanity might sound a bit stupid to talk about,” Alstin says, “but if that is the cause of people not protecting their heads in traffic, it is a real issue that you need to address.”

And, thus, what started out as a thesis project is now something that could revolutionize biking safety.

So how does it work? In a nutshell, it’s not a shell for your nut. It’s an airbag — one that’s tucked away in a collar that cyclists fastened around their neck. When the collar’s internal sensors detect a specific combination of jerks and jags signifying “ACCIDENT HAPPENING,” the airbag deploys, sending out a head-hugging, air-cushion hood in a tenth of a second.

Alstin explains: “We were aiming to do a product that was as safe as conventional helmets. But (helmets) are not really as safe as people think they are. But that has not been something that you want to talk about because there was no alternative before. Using the airbag technology we were actually able to set a completely new standard for safety in the bike helmet industry.”

Sweden has one of the highest percentages of people who use bikes as their primary mode of transportation, but only about 20 percent of adult Swedes wear helmets. Furthermore, bicyclists represented nearly 9 percent of all traffic fatalities in Sweden in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics were available. The comparable figure in the U.S. is 1.8 percent for that year.

In tests by a Swedish insurance company, Hövding was shown to be at least three times better at absorbing shock than conventional helmets (at 15 mph — this is a product aimed at urban cyclists). Hövding’s weakest point may be that it can’t protect riders from “direct hits” like overhanging branches and street signs, an issue that hasn’t prevented the company from winning Europe’s CE conformity label.

That said, Hövding has yet to be approved for sale in the U.S., and some experts are skeptical it will be able to muster a similar thumbs-up from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. But with interest mounting, Alstin says she and her colleagues are doing their best to get to the U.S. as soon as possible.

Alas, the $ 535 price tag is likely to provide a new excuse for anyone who bikes as a cost-cutting measure.

And what about cyclists in, say, Florida, where a thick collar might be slightly less appealing than in chilly Scandinavia where everyone already wears scarves that appear to hold their heads in place?

“For really hot countries, we’re thinking about developing a shell that would have a cooling system inside,” Alstin says. Innovate on.

News

Too Cool For (Bike) Helmet Head? Here"s One Swedish Solution

Here"s the Figure-Skating "Breaking Bad" Tribute You Didn"t Know Was Missing From Your Life

Here’s the Figure-Skating ‘Breaking Bad’ Tribute You Didn’t Know Was Missing From Your Life Image Credit: AMC

The creative genius behind this video re-enacting key moments of Breaking Bad (on ice) was Sharidan Williams-Sotelo (@blogstradamus), an assistant editor on the show who, according to her Twitter profile, is very adept as an ‘author-skater-dancer’. It shows in this video.

Superfans of Breaking Bad will enjoy this video that pays homage to the show and its devoted fans. Legendary Olympian skater, Tai Babilonia and Richard Dwyer make guest appearances. Having never watched the show, I can still tell that the video does an excellent job of capturing memorable scenes. Being the chemistry freak that I am, I particularly enjoyed the bit on ionic bonds and the periodic table, but what was up with the pizza boxes? 

More than tracing the story of a man turning to the dark side, I want to know how we got from this:

to this:

Alina Tsui

New York native. Senior undergrad (political-science major)at City College of New York. Currently working on thesis: far-right extremism in Greece. Hope to break stereotypes in its myriad shapes and forms.

PolicyMic

Here"s the Figure-Skating "Breaking Bad" Tribute You Didn"t Know Was Missing From Your Life

Here"s How the Shutdown Will Work

It’s official. The government of the United States shut down at midnight Monday. It is the first partial shutdown of government services since Bill Clinton’s administration 17 years ago.

If you’re wondering what approximately 800,000 Federal employees nationwide might be doing with no offices to go to, some in the Washington D.C. vicinity will be heading to synagogue – not for ecumenical prayers but to practice yoga, improve their gaming skills, watch television and generally just hang out.

Starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday the liberal Sixth & I Synagogue, founded in 1852 and located in the capital’s Chinatown neighborhood, has donated its space to office-less policy wonks who want to watch reruns of The White House, and enjoy free Wi-Fi, snacks and coffee, according to The Hill.

While these staffers and bureaucrats will be turning lemons into lemonade, over at NASA most of its 18,000 employees will stay home instead of celebrating the agency’s 55th anniversary Tuesday. But the six astronauts onboard the International Space Station will not be left to their own devices. NASA says it has specially assigned staff to protect the crew during the funding hiatus, Forbes magazine reported.

Government departments that will be essentially shut for the duration include the Environmental Protection Agency, and Commerce, Labor and Interior departments, according to contingency plans now implemented by the Office of Management and the Budget. National Park Rangers have already told overnight campers to leave, and roads across federal lands are being closed, The Wall Street Journal reported.

At the Defense Department half of the workforce has been told to stay home, including those at the branch charged with revoking security clearances for individuals with dangerous mental disorders, The Washington Examiner reported. 

Over at the National Health Service, laboratories will be working with a skeleton crew.

Air travelers should be relieved to know to the news that almost all Homeland Security workers will be at their posts as usual. So will most employees of the Social Security Administration and Veterans Affairs, according to The New York Times.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Here"s How the Shutdown Will Work

So Putin Wants to Make a Difference in Syria? Here"s How He Can Do It

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) talks to journalists in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. (Alexei Nikolskyi/Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dulcet editorial in the New York Times this week sounded like the opening aria in a charm offensive aimed not just at preempting the use of U.S. military force in Syria but also at winning a Nobel Peace prize. Already, a Russian educational foundation has written the Norwegian Nobel Committee to suggest Putin as a nominee.

Putin’s manifesto contains a number of truths – and even more silky evasions. The most dangerously disingenuous is the argument that any U.S. use of military force without a United Nations Security Council Resolution would violate international law – while failing to mention that Russia and China have blocked three separate attempts to address the mounting death toll in Syria. That’s like the boy who killed his parents, then asked the judge for leniency because he’s an orphan. By vetoing any Security Resolution with teeth, Russia and China make a mockery of the UN – then screech when the United States threatens to give up and circumvent it.

Let’s face it: Few international miscreants reform themselves without the threat of being ousted by domestic foes or weakened by external military force. Assad’s promise to surrender the chemical arsenal he didn’t admit he had, only after President Obama’s threat to use force, is one example of this historical truism. Another is Putin’s own escalating crackdowns on dissent. His crudely homophobic laws and his sending Pussy Riot to prison for dissing him are not Nobel-worthy impulses.

If Putin, whose brutal war in Chechnya killed or displaced tens of thousands and who has been Assad’s chief arms supplier with weapons best suited for killing Syrian civilians, now wishes to recast himself as the world’s great defender of international law and security, let none of us stand in his way. In fact, the international community can help Putin change up his governance style, get some mojo for his global leadership on peace and nonproliferation, and deliver an even better speech than President Obama gave in Stockholm.

Here’s how:

1. Once he’s done getting Assad to surrender his chemical weapons stash, Putin should take a victory lap by insisting the Security Council pass a resolution banning all countries and nonstate actors from transferring weapons to Syria or face “grave consequences.” Putin is a master at having it both ways. Without acknowledging that more Syrians have been killed with Russian-supplied weapons than with poison gas, he could with a straight face insist that all countries stop feeding the flames in Syria so that his Geneva II peace process can flourish.
    


2.  Russia goes first. Putin can show up the self-righteous Washington types and secure his place in history with a single phone call to the state-owned weapons exporter Rosoboronexport, ordering a halt to sales to Syria. Pesky human rights organizations have been reporting that Assad’s goons have sent Rosoboronexport a shocking letter that reads like a shopping list for urban atrocities. Israeli news organizations say that in exchange for Assad giving up chemical weapons, Russia agreed to resupply Assad. But a second phone call would stop the mystery ships that are leaving the Black Sea port of Oktyabrsk and disappearing, presumably to deliver their lethal cargo of arms for Syria.

3. Send Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the Security Council to announce that Russian arms shipments have stopped, and demand that Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Qatar, and then the United States also cease proving arms to the rebels. Threaten to impose Russian financial sanctions against any who refuse to comply. This could include trade sanctions against Iran and possibly Lebanon if it fails to curtail arms smuggling to Syria.

4.  Broker an unconditional, immediate ceasefire in Syria. Begin a round of shuttle diplomacy between Assad regime officials and the rebels to bring all sides to peace talks. Offer Assad and his family asylum in Dagestan if he leaves the country.

5. If Assad refuses to comply, order the Russian Finance Ministry to find and freeze Assad family assets, reputed to be worth about $ 1.5 billion. Promulgate regulations ordering Russian banks to halt any transactions with the Syrian Central Bank or the Commercial Bank of Syria. Investigate Assad’s maternal uncle, Mohammed Makhlouf, who according to Reuters, is overseeing the Assad family fortune from an apartment in Moscow.

6. Augment the Russian military advisors reportedly on the ground in Syria with Russian political trainers. Show Syrians how secular democracy can be made to work, and counter Al-Qaeda’s political influence. Fund Syrian non-governmental organizations to conduct peace and reconciliation programs among the many religious and ethnic groups in Syria – but make sure the groups report the foreign origins of their funding.

7. Announce a 10-fold increase in Russian contribution to UN refugee assistance funding.  So far the U.S. has kicked in roughly 26 percent of the nearly $ 3 billion in assistance that has been contributed toward helping the nearly six million Syrians who have been displaced by the fighting, while Russia has given only 0.6 percent.

8. Take in thousands of Syrian refugees. The United States has begun a modest effort to consider some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees for resettlement. Putin can outdo Obama receiving thousands of Syrians refugees, even temporarily, as Germany is doing.

Putin closes with a homily to Americans that whether a country is rich or poor, large or small, “God created us equal.” Okay, Syria’s a humanitarian, moral, and political disaster. Putin has an equal opportunity to start being part of the solution. 

Master Feed : The Atlantic

So Putin Wants to Make a Difference in Syria? Here"s How He Can Do It

Here"s who"s really back with Mom & Dad

Economy

Allison Linn CNBC

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Mark Hedengren / Getty Images for NBC News

Levi Oleson, 26, now lives in his childhood home with his parents in West Haven, Utah, after two big financial setbacks.

Here’s the stereotype: Across the country, basements are full of 20- and 30-somethings who graduated from college and now live with mom and dad because they can’t find a job.

The reality? Millions of the millennials who are stuck in their parents’ homes don’t have a college degree and can’t get a break in this harsh economy, a new analysis of government data shows.

Just ask Levi Oleson.

The 26-year-old once dreamed of being a pilot. Then the flight school he was attending went bankrupt, leaving him with $ 60,000 in debt but not enough training to start his career. A broken leg put him $ 10,000 deeper in the debt hole.

Now he’s living with his mom and dad again, and working up to 70 hours a week cleaning sewers, instead of soaring through the skies.

“I never thought I’d be in this position. I’m about to turn 27 and I always thought (by now) I’d be on my own and have my own things going,” he said.

A Pew Research Center analysis released earlier this month found that 40 percent of 18- to 31-year-olds with a high school degree or less, and 43 percent of those with some college education, were living at their parents’ home in 2012. 

That compares with just 18 percent of millennials with a college degree who were living at home in 2012.

“This phenomenon of increasingly living with mom and/or dad, this is more concentrated among the less educated,” said Richard Fry, a senior economist with Pew Research Center.

About 40 percent of young men in that age range were living at home, compared to 32 percent of young women. That follows a long-term trend of young men being more likely to live longer with their parents than young women.

Mark Hedengren / for NBC News

Levi Oleson works up to 70 hours a week cleaning sewers, instead of pursuing his dream of being a pilot.

The analysis of the government’s Current Population Survey data includes people who are going to college and living either at home or in college dorms, which partly explains why so many younger, less-educated millennials are counted as living at home.

But a closer shows a sharper surge in non-college educated millennials ages 25 to 31 who are still in their parents’ homes.

Pew’s analysis found that 19 percent of 25- to 31-year-olds with a high school degree or less were living at home in 2012, up from 15 percent in 2007. By comparison, 12 percent of 25- to 31-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or more were living at home in 2012, a statistically insignificant change from 11 percent in 2007.

There’s also been a sharper increase in 25- to 31-year-olds with some college education living at home. Their ranks increased from 14 percent in 2007 to 17 percent in 2012.

Oleson is grateful that his parents have given him a place to stay. But the situation has crimped his ability to do many of the things he expected to do by now, like get married and maybe even start a family.

“It’s hard to meet a girl and tell her you live with your parents at that age,” he said. “It’s not really good for the ego.”

Oleson is hoping that within a year he can afford to get his own place, but he’s not sure if he’ll ever get back to his original dream of becoming a pilot. But he said he’s become more savvy with money, at least.

“I’ve become pretty cheap,” he said, “and I think I’ve learned a good lesson about getting too much into debt.”

Hard job market, made tougher
About 45 percent of unemployed millennials were living with their parents in 2012, the Pew analysis found.

The weak job market of the past five years has certainly made it tough for young college grads to find a good job, but economists say young people with little education are probably having a harder time. 

Mark Hedengren / Getty Images for NBC News

Levi Oleson at his parents’ house.

That’s because they have neither the skills nor the experience to land a good job, plus they have to compete with college grads who might be willing to take a job that doesn’t require a college degree.

“It’s hit people harder with lower levels of education, and this sort of underscores that,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank.

Even if younger workers can get a job, it can take a while to earn enough to go it alone.

James McAllister, 24, was finally able to move out of his mom’s house last year after several years of living at home.

To make ends meet, he works a full-time retail job plus a second, part-time retail job. The Merriam, Kan., resident also has doesn’t have a car and has become an avid saver, coupon clipper and bargain hunter.

McAllister says he enjoyed living with his mom, but he felt he’d outstayed his welcome and it was time to move on. Now that he is on his own, he says he’s lost weight and his social life has improved.

“I feel better,” he said. “I feel more in control.”

Allison Linn is a reporter at CNBC. Follow her on Twitter @allisondlinn or send her an e-mail.

© 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Here"s who"s really back with Mom & Dad

Traveling abroad? Here"s some advice after U.S. mom jailed in Mexico

• Check travel advisories on the State Department — or even the U.K. — website


• Don’t make yourself a target by sticking out as a tourist


• More than 2,500 Americans are arrested abroad every year


• If you’re detained, you have a right to a visit with an official from U.S. consulate, expert says

(CNN) — Going to travel abroad? Here’s a tip: Blend.

Don’t stick out as a tourist because it’s like wearing a “Mug me!” sign, travel experts say.

The harrowing experience of an Arizona mother ending up in a Mexican border jail has prompted travel experts to renew some do’s and don’t"s for traveling.

Every year, more than 2,500 Americans are arrested abroad, with 30% of those cases related to illegal drugs, the U.S. State Department says.

The experience of Yanira Maldonado of Arizona — freed from jail Friday after being accused of drug possession — seems a case of a person “being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said travel expert Pauline Frommer, publisher of Frommers.com. A Mexican court determined that prosecutors did not provide evidence.

Still, the incident calls for globe trotters to be reminded of a few basics, experts say.

Do a little homework

The U.S. State Department publishes travel advisories online.

So does the U.K. version of that agency, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

In fact, Frommer likes the U.K. government’s travel advisories better because they are time-stamped and more detailed. such as giving the number of pickpockets over what period of time in a country.

“The State Department has very good announcement about what areas are safe and what aren’t,” Frommer said. “There are certain parts of Mexico that aren’t safe: there are border regions you don’t want to be a tourist in, and Acapulco — that’s a problem.”

Still, many parts of Mexico remain enjoyable destinations for tourism, Frommer said. In fact, she’s visited the country three times in the past few years: Cancun, Cozumel and Mexico City.

If a U.S. citizen is arrested abroad, he or she is subject to that country’s laws and may not enjoy the same protections as provided in the United States. The State Department stands “ready to assist incarcerated citizens and their families within the limits of our authority in accordance with international law,” the agency says.

If you are detained abroad and there is U.S. consular representation in that country, you have a right to a visit from a U.S. government official, said Alex Puig, regional security director of Americas for International SOS, a medical and security services firm operating in 70 countries.

Be the gray man

This is a simple one: blend in.

Don’t look like a tourist.

It may make you an easy mark for muggers or thieves, Puig said.

“Most travelers the last thing they worry about is keeping a low profile,” Puig said. “The last thing you really think about is that I should dress in to fit in their local environment. Americans are quite casual in their dress. I land at a foreign airport, and I go into the immigration line and I can easily pick out the Americans by their dress. They like to wear jeans and white tennis shoes and they like to wear college shirts like Georgia Tech.

“You don’t want to raise your profile by the way you dress,” he added.

Think as if it’s going to be stolen

Don’t carry a lot of money.

There’s no reason to in this age of connectivity.

And leave the good jewelry at home. Take credit cards.

“The truth is that in all tourist destinations nowadays there are ATMs aplenty,” Frommer said. “You want to rely on your plastic because it can be replaced.”

And make sure you have a credit card with a sufficient cash advance in case you need to post bond to get out of jail, said Texas attorney Louis Lopez, who represented a man framed by drug cartels.

Be aware of your surroundings

You can bet that Americans traveling in Mexico are now looking under their seat — especially on buses — before they sit down, Puig said. That’s because the Arizona mother was jailed after the Mexican military allegedly found marijuana under her bus seat.

“Out of this bad situation comes good learning,” Puig said. “You can’t take anything for granted when you are outside of your normal environment.”

The Internet readily offers local news on the country you’ll be visiting. The U.S.-Mexico border, for example, is renowned for drug smuggling — all heading into the United States.

The bus carrying Maldonado and her husband was traveling to Arizona from Mexico.

“Just be aware of drugs going from south to north, and drug traffickers are going to use every means available to move their drugs,” Puig said. “So you have to be alert.”

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Here"s Another Sign That Investors Are Totally Unconcerned About Defense Budget Cuts

Defense stocks have actually outperformed the S&P 500 since the start of the year, a sign that investors are relatively unconcerned about the effects of the sequester budget cuts on the military-industrial complex. 

Compiled by Sober Look, the chart below looks at the year-to-date performance of the S&P 500 (red) against the iShares defense industry ETF (ITA, blue), which is a composite index of defense stocks.

SoberLook.com

See a difference?

Neither does Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, and the general idea is that investors by and large haven’t priced in risk as a result of the implementation of sequestration into the price of defense stocks. 

While ITA underperformed the S&P earlier this year — during the uncertainty period — for whatever reason, they are now outpacing the S&P. 

This likely means one of two things:

• Investors in defense stocks don’t think sequestration will seriously damage the defense industry;
• Or, investors expect that sequestration will be replaced or rolled back at some point in the foreseeable future. 

It’s also conceivable that it is a little of both. 

That reaction is a far cry from the doomsday rhetoric that the White House and the Pentagon have been spouting for the past few weeks, as they warn that the sequester could have long-term consequences on American military readiness. 

Read the original post on Sober Look.

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Here"s Another Sign That Investors Are Totally Unconcerned About Defense Budget Cuts